DURHAM, N.H. — Notre Dame extended its unbeaten streak to 11 games with a dominating 5-1 road thumping of New Hampshire.
The Irish scored just 3:12 into the game, led 2-0 minutes later and 4-0 midway though the second period. At no point after the opening minutes did the outcome appear in doubt.
“That team was bigger, stronger, and better than us,” UNH coach Dick Umile said. “They kicked our butt. We’re not playing very well, obviously, but we had a hard time handling them.
“Give them credit. They’re a good team and we’re not right now.”
Notre Dame outshot the Wildcats, 40-26, arguably winning all three periods.
“I was pleased with our 60-minute performance tonight,” Irish coach Jeff Jackson said. “Everybody was going and it’s always a positive when we have everybody playing well.
“We certainly have had our flaws this year with losing two- and three-goal leads. But we’ve also had games where we’ve come from behind. So there’s been a lot of emphasis on playing three periods.
“You’re never safe against UNH. They have too many offensive weapons. You can’t relax.”
Cal Petersen stopped all 26 UNH shots except for Ara Nazarian’s penalty shot with one second remaining in the second period after he was taken down on a breakaway.
Mario Lucia led the Irish with two goals and an assist. The goals were only his seventh and eighth of the season, a surprisingly small number after totaling 49 in his first three years.
“He had a tough first half,” Jackson said. “All of sudden, he’s starting to come on and that’s only going to make us a much better hockey team because historically he’s been a 20-goal scorer. In the last three weeks, he’s shown that scoring touch, which is huge for us.”
The contest extended UNH’s losing steak to five. The lone silver lining in the Wildcat’s cloud was backup goaltender Jamie Regan stopping 19-of-20 shots in relief of Danny Tirone.
Mindful that the two teams complete their season series on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Whittemore Center, Umile instructed his team after the game to hop on the stationary bikes and, “Clean the whatever out of you.”
The Irish jumped out early, scoring on their first shot following a successful penalty kill. Connor Hurley capitalized on a turnover, putting his shot along the ice from the bottom of the left faceoff circle into the far side.
A minute later, they had a great chance to double that lead on an Andrew Oglevie breakaway and shot off the deke, but UNH goaltender Daniel Tirone made the pad save.
At 6:42, however, UNH and Tirone were not as fortunate as Mario Lucia scored his seventh of the season off the faceoff. Cutting into the right faceoff circle on his off wing, the senior beat Tirone far side.
Arguably, both of the first two goals were softer ones Tirone would have liked to have back. Such was not the case for the next two that chased him.
Anders Bjork made it 3-0 at 8:39 of the second period on the power play. The Irish worked the puck back to the points where Jordan Gross slid it cross ice to Bobby Nardella, who then fed Bjork in the right faceoff circle. Bjork’s one-timer was his tenth goal of the year.
Barely more than three minutes later, Lucia struck again for a 4-0 lead, roofing it on the blocker side. The goal chased Tirone, who finished with 16 saves on 20 shots.
Whatever slight hope UNH gained from Nazarian’s penalty shot goal was extinguished in the third when Sam Herr added a final nail in the coffin. His goal came on the power play, Notre Dame’s second on the man advantage, collecting a pass in front from Jake Evans, putting a shot on net and then stuffing his own rebound home.
